Always to say like don't put your dreams on hold, which is you don't know what's what tomorrow will bring. But it was amazing, So that's what I mean, Like, if you want to do something, they just very hot up against the world chap and I figured, like all I wanted to do since my accident was surf on my own, and I figured, I get to do it at Waikiki and this most beautiful surf break, So I just go out there, try my best and have fun.
Welcome to the Seas the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy are not the same thing. We too rarely question what makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than one way. So this is a platform to hear and explore the stories of those who found lives They adore, the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst days
will bear all the facets of Seizing your Yay. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned funentrepreneur who's walked the suits and heels to co found matcha Maidan and matcha milk Bar. Seize the Yeah is a series of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way. Hello, lovely yighborhood. It is so nice to be back in your ears after a huge few weeks
since we last recorded. Although I'm just realizing now you have only heard that episode last week, even though we recorded it ages ago. Podcast Land is so weird. We've been overseas, we've come back, We've set at our new home, which is so exciting, and started the renovations, but have also shared a huge and challenging part of our lives from earlier this year for the first time, and your
response has just been overwhelmingly beautiful. I won't go into it too much now so as not to take away from our incredible guest for this week, and I'll dedicate next week's Yeays of our Lives episode to talking about it in a little bit more detail. But we experienced a pregnancy loss earlier this year and shared what happened for the first time last week with the incredible team
at Della Magazine. Again. I'll go into it in much more depth in the next episode, where we will create space to kind of cover everything that happened, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone listening who has shared their own story with us in response or sent a message of support. There have been hundreds and hundreds, and we've been just so moved by the response, and it's been so enormously cathartic. I was actually really nervous to share it, weirdly, even though I'm someone who
shares quite a lot. But anyway, in the meantime, you can also head over to Stella's podcast if you miss the feature in the magazine Something to Talk About, if you want to listen to the initial interview with the incredible editor Sarah Lamarkand who was so nurturing and so supportive and really helped get the story out when we were a bit nervous and not really sure how to
word it for the first time. It just felt really weird to record this week without mentioning it at all, But we'll cover it more next week, So just for now, thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts. For now, I'm so excited this week's guest, having followed her story and had her on our Ultimate wish List for many years now, with one of those pinched myself moments.
Some of you may already know her, but if not, Sam Bloom is a world champion surfer, adventure traveler, best selling author, neurology nurse and mother of three boys whose story also became a global Hollywood hit, Penguin Bloom. That heartbreaking story begins in twenty thirteen when Sam was paralyzed in a terrifying accident in Thailand when she fell through a rotting balcony, But it was the unlikely arrival of a beautiful magpie chick called Penguin that helped Sam's grueling
recovery back in Australia. The photos captured by her photographer husband Cameron, which are painstakingly beautiful, were later made into a book written alongside legendary author Bradley Trevor Greeve, and this then became the basis of Penguin Bloom, starring Naomi Watts. Having poured over Penguin Bloom many times, it was just surreal to be able to hear Sam chats so candidly about grief and redefining joy in real time, rather than
reading her words in the book. She is so refreshingly honest about the defining trauma in her life and the challenges that she still enjoys every day, but being able to find yay in between all those moments. And what I also loved though, was the chance to ask Sam about all the other parts of her life that perhaps don't relate so much to the story that many know her for and maybe haven't been part of the book or the movie. I could go on forever, but I will let Sam t be the rest of herself. This
is one of my favorite chats to date. I just really felt so much warmth towards her, and I hope you guys do too. I'm so grateful for Sam's time, and I hope.
You guys enjoy this chat.
Sam, welcome to Seize thee.
A Hey, Sarah, thanks for having me.
Oh, it is such a pleasure. I have followed you for such a long time. I think we said in the original email, I've had the very first book for a really long time and then have followed your journey since. And this is very surreal. It's so exciting.
Let's cool. Well, I'm just me.
I'm sure that's easy for you to say, which is why we start every episode, particularly with people like yourself, where lots of us feel very connected in with your journey and are constantly in awe of everything that you do. But I'm sure for you, you just feel like you're you. So I start every episode by just asking people what the most sort of down to earth, normal, random thing is about them that reminds people listening that you are just a human who has weird habits and does weird things.
That's so funny. Oh man, I don't know. I just guess I'm just like I said, I'm just me, just a tomboy. I've always been a tomboy, certainly not academic. I like just being kind of physical, you know, getting out there doing exercise. Yeah, and just keep it real.
I love that.
Yeah, I just like keeping it real. You know, don't sugarcoat anything. Yeah, don't make something bigger than it, you know it needs to be.
Oh that's so refreshing. And I think that comes across in you know everything that you do, that you're just exactly who you are and you don't sugarcoat things. And I love that so much.
Yeah, no, absolutely know it.
But I also love that you mentioned you know, you weren't academic, and I think there are so many different kinds of creativity and intelligence, and not all of them necessarily get Like when we're younger and we sort of have an idea of what we should become and what we're supposed to be, Like, there's so much pressure to do certain pathways or to do certain things, and so I kind of like to go, particularly with people like yourself, where a lot of us have been introduced to your
story from sort of twenty thirteen onwards, and there's not as much airtime about who you were before that and how you made decisions about what you wanted to do when you were a kid. And having said that you aren't very academic, you were a neurology nurse. So I beg to differ. But can you take us back to very very young Sam and sort of introduce us to you know, who you were as a child, what your first job was, what you thought you'd be when you grew up.
Sure, well, that's funny because I had it in my head that I wanted to be a nurse when I was in first grade.
No way.
Yeah, And I remember our teacher she asked everybody to draw a picture, you know, what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I drew a nurse and she had this massive needle, even though I hate needles, and I had the Pyramids. I drew the Pyramids in the background because I wanted to go to Africa. WHOA Yeah, And I don't know where it came from, but I was just saying, I say, Adamant, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to be a nurse and I'm going to go to Africa.
Which is amazing because that's obviously what you did, which is wild, but it's kind of weird. It's so funny because you know, often, like this whole first section is called your wayta, which is, yeah, tracing back all the chapters of who you've been at different times in your life to remind everyone listening that most people with a cool pathway or an interesting life story often didn't know what they wanted to be or what was coming next.
But for you, it's rare that we hear that someone was like I wanted to be this when I was a kid, and then I did it. So how did you kind of translate that to getting there? To Like, was that with you the whole way through school that you wanted to do nursing in Africa?
Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, the whole way through school. And I've always said this thing for Africa, and like I said, I don't know where it came from. And I remember, oh how old, maybe I was sixteen or seventeen, and I remember and my grandma took me into the city because we live it on the Northern Beaches. She turned me into town and took me into dimixed into a big bookshop. Pick a book. I'm like, okay, Grandma, and I picked do you remember Lonely Planet?
Of course?
Yeah, yeah, And I remember I specifically picked like West Africa, Lonely Planet, West Africa. I'm like, yeah, I want that.
That is wild.
Yeah, it's funny. And so I just I think I've always been pretty Wasn't it determined? But like if I have my mindset on something, I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna do it.
I love that, especially like a Northern Beaches girl, barefoot, tomboy, outdoors surfing. It's like Africa. It's not the first thing that comes to mind.
I know, I know it's funny, but yeah, no, it's just always been like, yeah, just the one place that have been drawn to.
Wow, it's really funny because the pyramids that we had our honeymoon in Egypt a year ago, and we'd both been obsessed with like hieroglyphics and gyptology since we were kids as well, and it was like one year today since we landed. Oh wow, I just had the thing pop up, and I had this weird maybe not as much like from childhood as you like buying books and stuff, but I always was fascinated with the Pyramids and always wanted to go, but didn't think i'd work there.
Yeah, sure, but I mean at least she went.
Yeah. It absolutely blew my mind. So, okay, so you thought you wanted to be do nursing kind of all the way through school and then when you did actually start that career, like what came next? How did you make your way to Africa? And I believe that that was where you met your husband was traveling?
Well you will we kind of Okay. So obviously I finished school, went to UNI, and you know the funny thing is I actually found it really hard to get a job. Really when I finished school year as a nurse, I was just say oh, and so my mom and dad had a cake shop in Newport, and so I would just work there to earn money to go traveling. And that's actually where I met Cam because we went to different schools and Cam used to come in and buy you know, meet pies or whatever. Yeah, and I
thought he was pretty spunky and seemed really nice. So I remember one night I was out with my friend Bron. Were just at the local pub and I saw Cam and he was with his friend, and so I went up to a mask him out to a party. And that's kind of where it all started.
You asked him out. I love that.
Yeah, I said, you want to come to a party like tomorrow night or so, I can't remember, maybe it was that night or the next night. And then you know, swap phone numbers as you did. Because Cam's a photographer and so he's got the same passion as me. Loved traveling, loves many different people, you know, learning about cultures. And yes, so when I finished Uni, I didn't get a job. I couldn't get a job, So Cam and I went traveling. Oh.
Also, was he in Africa with you?
Not all of it? So Cam and I flew to Italy and then went through Greece and then Turkey and then we actually went down through the Middle East. I love so cool and then over to Egypt. So that was Cam's first time to Africa, to the continent.
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
It was cool. And then so I don't know, We're wait for quite a while, and then I flew up. Cam had to fly back to Australia for work. So I went to London and I got a.
Job in London.
No, I'm not in London. I was actually in Hampshire. I was looking out for a lord. Yes, he was so lovely. He's a QC. His name is Lord Denning, Lord Denning. So I was his nurse.
Stop it.
Yeah, only for maybe three months.
Okay, Sam. So I was a lawyer before I met I have read so many Lord Denning judgments. That is wild.
That's so weird that.
You know, I'm getting a star strike like through you. Oh my god, Lord Denning, he's so fancy. He wrote every judgment ever.
Oh wow, he's such a nice. Yeah. He was beautiful. Wow. Yes, I lived with him.
Oh my god, that's so mild to me.
That's so funny. Yeah. He had the most beautiful house. It was like on quite a big property in a tiny little town called which It was a beautiful old sandstone house.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it was amazing. So we'd have obviously breakfast and together and lunch and dinner, and he spent a lot of time in his library.
I can imagine.
I actually don't know what he was doing, I like leaving there, but yeah, he was just he was a very very kind man. And I remember having Christmas with his with Lord Danning obviously and Lady Fox and wow, yeah.
Yeah it was cool. Oh my gosh, Sam, to any of like my fellow you know, former colleagues, or anyone I started with, there are quite a few who still listened to the show, they will be frothing right now, like Lord Denning for Christmas.
What funny. Yes, we'll talk to Lord Danning about driving to Africa, and you know, he was really encouraging I obviously he loved traveling, and yeah, so that was that was great.
I feel like this is why I love going back through the chapters. That often people are like, what do you even want to know about like my teenage years and my childhood and my first job. And I think it's because like often that's that kind of stuff, doesn't
like I didn't know that about you? And I go in deep into the Internet to try and find like you know, little nuggets of like random experiences that you do and that you end up in somehow to meet people that you never thought you'd meet, and they all contribute to sort of who people become later in life. And I think it's so cool.
Yeah, oh that's so cool. So yeah, So I was with Lot Dunning for three months or however long was, and then that's how I saved up more money to go to West Africa. Okay, so I finally finally got to West Africa. Wow, which is amazing. So I just did in like an overland trip.
So you weren't working, you were traveling at this time.
He's traveling, Yeah, because I was only I was only twenty two. Oh wow yeah, oh my god. Yeah. No, it's such a fantastic trip. But you know, going through Senegal and Mauritania, Mali, like all on West New West Africa.
I feel like there's something about we've not spent that much time there, but we've done more like East. So we spent a bit of time in Rwanda and Tanzania and Zanza Baha and a bit of South Africa. But I feel like there's something about almost everyone I know who's been once has been back many times. Like as soon as you go to the continent, it's like I need to get back.
Absolutely, it's the people. I just love the people. They're just amazing.
So after that, how long did you spend sort of in those travels and then what brought you home or did you kind of stay there for a while.
Well, finally, well it wasn't funny, but okay, So I paid for the West African trip and the truck was actually going from West Africa to East Africa. Then I was in foriqin fso and I had my bag stolen. And back then this is a nineteen ninety four you probably might have been born then.
I was definitely born.
But yeah, yeah, so you know, he had travelers checks like it was just a little bit different then. And so I had my money stolen, so I couldn't keep going to East Africa because I'd only paid for the West African bit. So I was like, damn it. So I flew back to London. I got another job for a month, and then my friend and I went to Morocco just for a holiday and then we were there for maybe only three weeks, and I flew back to London.
And it's a bit of a shitty story because I made a really good friend on their trip, a couple of really good friends from Australia, and so I was back in London. I was just staying in a hostel and then I looked down and there was that paper T and T and it said osman killed by grenade attack. Yeah, And I picked it up and I was like, oh my god, and it was my friend Ann and I found out he'd gotten killed, and you gowned someone was Wren Rwanda was kind of going crazy, so obviously it's
a pretty terrible time. So someone threw a hand grenade at the truck and it exploded and he got sharp north through his time. So that's why I came home. I remember.
Oh.
And the weirdest thing is, and even now later after all these years, like you know the rim song Everybody Hurts. Yeah, it was playing online video hits on the TV and.
You can't listen to it now.
I always feel like crying if I hear it. I'm so yeah. So I read that he'd been killed and my other friend had been really badly injured. So yeah, I remember, really mom in tears, going I'm coming home, coming home. Yeah, oh my god, that's why I went home.
Like this is even we're not even to twenty thirteen yet and you've already had like a whole lifetime worth of experiences. Not really, Oh, I'm so sorry. I feel like those are those, you know, defining kind of life moments that just change your absolutely your whole perspective on sort of mortality and making the most of every minute and the things that you just walk along in your life thinking blah blah blah like I've got all the time. You know, I think they really changed your mind.
Yeah, it's and the worst thing, I mean, obviously the worst that he died. But Anne wanted to do You wanted to see them, the gorillas. I didn't see them. I just wish it's in the grinds.
Yeah you know.
So yeah, no, I was devastated when, like when I heard that. So yeah, it still makes me sad. Even though we didn't know each other for that long, we just had this really good connection. And yes, it's bizarre how something like that can like yeah, like impact your yeah, like you said, your whole life.
It's also interesting. I feel like, you know, there's friends that you have because you share an entire history in school life and you're not you've known each other through many chapters, and then there's friends often that you meet through travel, where you kind of escalate through the first two decades of friendship just because you've shared something really intense.
Yes, yes, bizarre. Yeah. So I remember when I came home and when my other friend, like she she got incredibly badly injured and then she was in the hospital for quite a long time. When she got out, we drove down to Wogga, which is where Aunt was from, and met his mom and dad and which is really lovely. I remember Aunt really loved chocolate, so we went to his grave and I remember sticking a chocolate bar in
his grave. Yeah, and his mom she's so lovely. She's still in touch with me and she always makes me want to cry because she'll she'll message me and go Aunt will be so proud of you and almost.
What do I say, Oh my gosh.
Yeah, yeah that was That was my first trip, well, I guess second trip to Africa.
And I feel like it's interesting when you come home from somewhere that's just so different to Australia, and I mean seeing other cultures and experience in them is what lights my life. Like I just I love travel for
that reason. But I also feel like it's kind of disorientating when you get home because you've had all this time living in a different way and and having your brain expanded, and then you kind of come home and you're like got to get used to the day to day again, and it's like this, I don't know, I get this tension between like wanting to adventure and live minute to minute and then you come home and it's like, oh, my God, should expectations and like settle down and have
a life path kind of thing. What was next?
What did I do? I came home, I don't think I still ended up working at mom and Dad's case.
How did you come back to the shop?
So thank God for the catchup? What did I do? Then? I went to India and Borneo with my sister, and in between that we do like little trips, but that was that was quite a big, biggish trip away. And then when I finally came back, I actually got a nursing job.
So I was saying, yeah, I'm settling down now, I'm doing the thing.
Yeah, that's when I got a proper job. Well, it was funny. I was on a casual on the casual pool at ride Rehab, which is actually where I ended up, which was kind of a bit odd.
No way the same place.
Yeah, just I was just on the casual pool up there. And then I got a proper job at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on the nearest Urge Coward, which was fantastic. I love that, And I had a fantastic boss and he knew I love traveling, and so like being a nurse, you kind of it's pretty cool. You get a lot of holidays really. Yeah, Like I used to take six weeks off a Christmas and then two weeks off during the year.
Wow.
So usually the six weeks camera and I would go away, like yeah, one time we went to back to Egypt and then to Ethiopia, which was awesome. It is amazing. Yeah, highly recommend.
I love your sense of adventure, and I also I love the idea that I think something we talk about a lot in the show is people's idea of success and that being kind of the way you measure your life. And like, how far have I come along? And am I hitting goals? And am I keeping up with everyone
around me. But I love that. It sounds like through your whole life you've had obviously had goals and a vocation and a profession, but like travel and seeing the world and other life experiences that aren't just like success measurements have been equally valued for you.
Oh, totally been one, Like you know, oh, I'm going to be a nurse and then I'm going to be like a clinical nurse specialist and like move up the ranks. I've never been, Like that's fascinating. I don't know. I just like doing what I like to do.
And that was when you say it like that, it sounds so straightforward, like do the things that make you happy, and like just don't do the things that don't make you happy.
To me, that's what I say to everybody, Like if you want to do something, then do it. Don't want to have regrets totally.
And yet there's for some reason for so many of us, it's actually a really convoluted decision making process of like there's a lot of barriers between I want to do it and I should do it, and they shouldn't be. But it's funny how like we let our brain get so clouded by all the reasons why we shouldn't be doing those things. I love that you're just like not like I want to do what I want to do.
Really, I mean I've always been like that, even though I remember one time I saw this magazine Simply Living Okay, German that was a bit kind of hippie, and on the front cover they had a portrait of a man from Bhutan. And then in the end there obviously there was an article about like Bhutan, and I'm like, yeah, I so want to go there. So I did.
You just went next day, bought a ticket.
Yeah, I had to do a track. It was a trick you had to go through or was it World Expeditions, But it was amazing. So that's what I mean, Like, if you want to do something, they just follow follow very hot. Yeah.
I love that so much. And it's actually Bhutan. I think that's the country that has the highest gross domestic happiness. Is that it?
Yeah, it's a beautiful country and beautiful people.
So that's still definitely right up there on my bucket list. But coming back to that whole like measuring things more by happiness and fulfillment and joy rather than like success and goals, which is really, if I want anyone listening to take anything away from this show, it's to allow yourself space to measure your life by how happy you are,
not just by all those other things. I think one of the reasons why your story is so powerful to people is that, I mean, up until this point, if anyone listening hasn't heard sam story yet, it already sounds
like there's been a whole entire lifetime of revelations. But I mean, like, really, from twenty thirteen is another gigantic life changing event that makes it even more impressive that you have such a healthy, fresh approach to happiness from the depths of darkness to be able to find joy again. So can you tell us the story for anyone who hasn't heard it?
Of course, So, like, like I said, I love traveling, and then so Cam and I had three boys, or have three boys, and we wanted to instill our love of travel in them. And you know, actually the most frustrating thing is Cam and I wanted to take them to Ethiopia and Egypt, and then at the time, I know, at the time Egypt it was just a bit too dangerous. So we're like, no, we don't want to risk it,
and so that's why we chose Thailand. We thought, you know, it's close, beautiful people, great food, and so yeah, so we flew to Thailand, flew to Puquette, and then we started heading up north and we're kind of have between Picquet and Bangkok, and we'd been in tight End for only about four days, and we're staying at this really
nice hotel, like it was right on the beach. It was pretty remote, and then one of the kids spotted like this, like an observation deck, and so we went up the stairs and then I land on the railing and it had dry rot, but I didn't realize, and so I fell back six meters, just straight down. And so yeah, so I fright broke my back and hit my head like sustain like numerous injuries, but obviously breaking my back was the worst. Oh my gosh, that was my holiday. That was the worst holiday of my life.
I mean, justifiably, that's not what you want. On day four two, I think you fractured your skull, ruptured both lungs, and then shadowed your spinal cord.
Right yeah, so yeah, so I'm paralyzed from my chest down like no movement, no, no, feeling nothing.
Oh my gosh.
And it's weird, you know because like, like I said, I used to be really active before I guess before the accident. You know, I'd always be surfing and playing soccer and mountain biking. That's who I was. And then losing my mobility has always just been like like the scariest thing for me. And to have that happen it was like what, like, yeah, so I didn't handle it very well at.
All, I mean fair enough. It's like something that you can't ever kind of plan for. I mean, no one sort of gives you a rule book on like how do I rebuild who I am, especially as someone who is especially active and who does activities like surfing, which you don't immediately think, oh, surfing is really easy as a paraplegic. Although speaking of your determination, you have since gotten back in the water, but we'll make our way
back to that. So when it first happened, I mean, because you you know, have a background in nursing and neurology, did you know straight away like did you get evacuated, Like how did you get home?
Well? No, I didn't know straight away. Well, I knocked myself out and I had bleeds on my brain, and so I was pretty out of it, and I actually had no idea. Really, I had no move but apparently in the ambulance I kind of came to and I said to Cam, I can't move. I can't move. But I don't remember any of this. So my first memory is probably there must have been two days after I fell and my mom and sister turned up, and I'm like, what are you guys doing here? I had no idea
what was going on. I didn't even know I was in the hospital. And then oh, I remember saying to mom because I was like strapped onto this spinal board and I had this strap going over my chest and I remember saying to mom, oh, this is really hurting my boods. It was this squishing me. And I remember saying I want to get up. I want to get up, and I don't remember what she said to me, so yeah.
And then the next memory is being in theater, but I didn't know I was in theater, and I remember them putting a central line in my neck and I hate needles and actually really hurt. And I remember dripping onto this sheet just like thinking what And then I saw them pull my t shirt out and cut that off and then I just saw the mask come down. But again I had no idea, Oh my gosh, yeah, it's just weird. I think the nurses were like I do remember always putting my arm out and they just
injected some sort of dankil. So I was pretty out of it. And yeah, so no, I didn't know. And the tie doctors never said that I was paralyzed. Really no, from when I remember, they would say that I have spinal shock, and they'd be like, oh, you know, six weeks or so, you know, it should kind of get better. So in my head, I'm like, Okay, I can do like six weeks in hospitals.
Then I'll go home and be me yeah, it'll all go back to normal.
Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but I just had no idea. I must have thought though something bad had happened. Because where the accident happened, we will put an ambulance. We're driven three hours up to this other hospital. It was like a private hospital. It was in a place called Wahian. So I was there for about a week and a half and then they moved me up to Bangkok. And I remember when I was in Bangkok, saying to Cam, I wish I'd die, but I meant it though, so
obviously I realized something was not right. Yeah, yeah, so well, I didn't actually find out I was paralyzed until I got back to Sydney. Really, yeah, I know it sounds so ridiculous. So I remember I got flown back to Sydney with a nurse and a doctor. She was a thy nurse an Aussie doctor and yeah, I met at the airport by ambulance offices and taking straight to roll Nor Shore. And yeah, it was the second day there and I went and had an MRI. And that's when
the doctor came up. I remember asking him my mum was there next to me. I remember saying, you know, we'll ever walk again. It's you. No. I just pulled shuit over my head and I burst into tears. That's how I found out.
Oh my gosh, it's just I feel like you know how you were saying before. If you've been asked what your biggest fear in life was, most of us have you know some big, huge fear that seems so remote, like yeah, it's huge fear, but like it would never actually happen. You've actually gone through the process of spending your whole life hearing something and then one day someone literally yeah, it just comes up to you and goes by the way. You know, that biggest like impossible, one
percent chance it would happen to you. Yeah, here it is.
I know. I couldn't believe it. I was just devastated. I remember, yeah, crying, Oh it's just cry. I was so I think I was so overwhelmed. I was just like, like, as far as I was concerned, it was like my life's over. Yeah, you know, like like what the hell am I supposed to do now? Yeah, you know, being stuck in well, stuck in bed for like three months, but you know that was wasn't too bad. But yeah, no, I was devastated. I remember just being so sad and angry all the.
Time, and also the whole like I often. You know, one of my kind of guiding life philosophies is everything happens for a reason, which helps orientate you find the silverlighting. Blah blah blah. But there are some scenarios in life where you're like, there is no fucking that I love it. It does not make sense in every situation.
No, no, definitely not.
And it's interesting that it's I think you are such an amazing example of the fact that you know, we talk a lot about you can redefine the pathway that you have and you can find happiness and things you never thought you could. And you know, it's easier to talk about that in the abstract, but like you actually lost everything that you enjoyed about who you were and
what your life could be. Yeah, so tell us about building that back up again, because not that it's don't I don't mean to compare scenarios, but I feel like people who might be, you know, born with paraplegia, they don't know themselves in a different way, whereas you have a clear contrast of like, this was my life before and this is what I have to get used to now.
It's the before and alfter I always to say that's my old life. Yeah it is weird. Okay, So I was in the hospital for about seven months. That's a hospital and rehab and yeah, I do remember complaining. There was an amazing guy there. He was a sports recreational officer. He was awesome. He knew how much I loved sport and all that. He would try so hard. He take
me to your basketball. He take me to murder ball, you know, like that where they knock into each other and two throwing a ball and everything, and I'd be like no, no, And I remember saying to him, maybe I could kayak. Oh yeah, yeah, because I thought I'm not in the wheelchair, you know, back on the water. And so yeah, it was two weeks after I got
home from rehab. That's when I first started kayaking. And it just felt good, like I would just paddle only one day a week, Saturday mornings, and that was the highlight of my week being just kind of having our freedom again. I mean, obviously it wasn't easy, like having no core. I'd be like sitting there and I'd be like, well, building and just trying to fall out. But yeah, I know, it was just fun and it was also it was the one day. It was the one thing actually that
took my pain away. This is the most annoying thing about spinal cord injury is like I have no feeling, but I'm in constant pain. Really it's so frustrating. It's like it's called neuropathic pain, so it's like your nerves are guess going crazy, so it's like you're continuously on.
Fire, so you sort of have no sensations other than the ability to feel pain in that area.
Yeah, it's not normal pain. It's just like literally like you're sitting in coals or sitting on like stinging needles or something all the time. All the time. It's like, dam give me a break. So that's why the kayaking was really great, because I think it was like a distraction, you know, so I had to obviously just focused on not falling in the water, and it was just yeah, it was this. Yeah, it was a good distraction. And then I do remember thinking, wow, you know, the pain's not as bad.
I think it's also really interesting how you didn't do it all overnight, like you kind of didn't go from where you were to like where you are now where you can speak about it, and you couldn't have happiness in your day. It was real like, Okay, first, I'll just do one day a week and then and I think, why the story of Penguin and the magpace so beautiful? Is it? Because it reminds everybody like it's just those really small things that give you a glimmer of a
new emotion, like a tiny, tiny glimmer of hope. You don't need to have it all sorted out in one day. It can be one small distraction that gets you a little bit closer every day.
Oh absolutely, yeah, so yes, okay, So I started the kayaking and then yeah, when I came home, I was like not any good headspace. I think when I came home, I was kind of like, oh my god, this is my reality, this is my new life. And I hated it, Like, you know, because we can look like, we can see the beach and I can see my favorite serfs boot and so I would just sit here and I'd look at it, and it'd make me so angry, so sad,
you know, thinking, and I'd always go back. Oh you know, if this was like, you know, this time last year, I would have been out there. I would have been surfing and you know, having the best day. And so yeah, I felt like I was on house arrest and I hated being here. I felt like a really bad mom. Kius. You know the kids were only little Yeah how old
were they at the time when it happened. They were like seven to nine and oh yeah, they're only like a little little and you know, I did everything for them. And then so when I came home. I felt so bad because I couldn't I couldn't take them to school, I couldn't run and go down the beach with them, and actually and really silly things like I couldn't clean the house, you know, just really dumb mom things. But I missed so much and going shopping and cooking, and yeah,
I really struggled, and yeah, it is sad. It was about three months after and Noah and I went to my mom's house. She lives at the next beach, and yeah, and Noah found a little magpie and we thought we she died we left her there, so we picked her up and bring her home, and yeah, she was so cute. She was so adorable. And then so we called it
penguin because she looked like a baby penguin. Showed that, you know, the fluffy chouse, you know, so I was like, oh, it just takes like a penguin, and so, yeah, it was just great. It was great for me because I actually had something to focus on, and she took like, you know, instead of just kind of feelings, not sorry for myself, but like just wallowing. I guess in like self pity maybe, which.
You're absolutely allowed to do.
Yeah, you know, I just kind of put all my energy and so did the kids into Penguin because she she was so tiny and she needed feeding every couple of hours. And oh it was just lovely. It was just and I talked to her all the time. I would winch to her, I tell her what was going on.
In my head, because your emotional support bird he was. And then because obviously because Cameron's a photographer who was documenting this, did he know that he wanted to use the photos for something?
Oh absolutely not, no, no no. So yeah, like Cam continues, it takes photos, which is fine. I remember saying to him, though, I remember saying, if you're going to take a photo of me and Penguin, you can only shoot from my waist up. I didn't want the wheelchair. Really, yeah, I had a few issues.
I mean, fair enough, you've come a long way.
And so, as a joke, said to Cam, why don't you start an Instagram account? And so we did it and it was just for a bit of fun. So we called it Penguin Magpie. And then you know, Cam would post a few photos and then I think an abas C journalist from Brisbane, I think saw it and then it kind of went a bit crazy. So it was so far. I remember Cam and I were laughing. I was like, this is so bizarre, Like he was getting people from overseas wanting to write a little story
on Penguin, from India, Israel all this. We were like what, Yeah, it was bizarre. And then a few people publishers wanted to do is store a book and we were like that's just weird. Like we were like, who would want to my book with our family photos?
Yeah, that is such a weird content. What do you think about it?
Yeah? And then Hypercollins ABC email Cam and then Cam message Bradley Trevor Grieve, who actually wrote our books.
I love was the author.
You know. Cam was kind of like, what do you think you know about telling our story? And then I think it was like twenty four hours later Bradley wrote back and he said, I'll tell your story okay. So he was making Penguin almost like a like a vessel. I guess you could say, like to tell my story, like he was telling my stories through Penguin, which sounds odd. Yeah, but it was really cool. I mean I'd never met Bradley.
It's kind of perfect timing for me because I was still like, you know, pretty I was not happy, and I hated always wing into Cam because he had enough and he had to obviously look after me and the boys. And so it was really nice talking to Bradley with Scott like almost every day for hours, and I would just yeah, just tell Bradley every scene how I was feeling, good days, bad days, you know, funny things, sad things.
So it's kind of quite cathartic, I think, just talking and sharing things with him.
I think I discovered him through the Blue Day Book, which I think is maybe not his first one, yeah, but I think it was the one that kind of like exploded and solid.
Okay, I remember that too. That was massive.
Yeah, it was like the one that really started me thinking about redefining like a shit day and it's you know, one bad day is in a bad life, and then there's all and then you know, after I found that book, I kind of bought all these books, and I think that actually might have been how I came across Penguin Bloom in the first place. But I mean again, it's one of those things where like you would never have guessed that that is what would come of your story, but no.
A million years what I know? Yeah, it was this, It was this weird, but it was it was great.
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I know, right, I know. Yeah. So one of the producers from the film, Emma Cooper, came new Emma from from years ago, you know, obviously being a photographer. And then so Emma is best mates with Naomi Watts. So Emma gave a book to Naomi and it just really resonated with him. His name. He also has a couple of kids, and you know, I guess, being a mom herself, she would say, Wow, I want to make this into a film. I want to produce it and act in it.
What I love how most people are like they want you know, their wildest dreams would be to get onto someone famous, to like play them in a movie. I meanwhile, she's asking if she can be.
You seriously that wild? Yeah, No, it was really cool. I mean I'm so lucky. Like she is the most down to earth loveliest person ever, you know, Like I was, I as, I was pretty nervous when I first met her for lunch and I was going came, oh my god, oh my god, Like you know, she's like a movie star, and I was thinking, oh, I hope she's not like a princess, you know, like the whole like just open the top. But honestly, as soon as we met, yeah, she just hit it off. She's so lovely.
Oh my god.
I'm so lucky.
I mean I think you think that it's luck, but also I think good things come to good people, and like you know, I think people find each other as well when they have some amazing product or some project that's going to come out that they're meant to be together for, like you and Bradley, and like you know, I feel like it all kind of comes together and it's it's it's amazing that you have gone from a place of literally hating sort of your day to day,
which is so understandable and such a natural like reaction to everything you love being taken away from you to now being able to not only like change so many other people's perception of happiness and fulfillment with the book and the film, but also like getting back in the water yourself. You've gone on and like as you said, you started canoeing. I love how humble you are. Like I just kind of got in the water. I'm like you then kind of won like some national titles, but
then also became a world surfing champion. Gal, what do you mean.
I know, it's very strange because I used to surf. You know, I've grown up surfing and so I've always feel comfortable in the ocean. Yeah, but I mean after my accident that I was like, you know, there's no way, like I I surfing is just like a write off. And so it actually took five years, and you know how it came about. It was like this random act of kindness.
It was a letter, wasn't it.
It was a letter yep, from Nolah Wilson and her son is Julian Wilson, who was a professional surfer. And I mean I didn't know.
I didn't know them.
And then Nola this wrote me this most beautiful letter encouraging me to get back out on the ocean, get back out on the water, and I was like, okay, so I kind of everything to Nola. Wow, Oh no, she's such a legend, Like she's just the coolest lady.
I mean, I think you're the coolest lady ever, but oh.
No, Nola is just amazing. She's so beautiful. Like even like she'd come down and watch me compete at some competitions, you know in New South Wales, and you know, just she's always just so like she's again she's like, oh, I'm so proud of you. She's just yeah, she's a beautiful lady. So I know, just that that one letter, it's completely changed everything.
And it's so interesting because I think so much of your story is like the perfect example of all the themes we talk about on the show, but just on steroids, like the idea of like we all you know, we talk about self doubt very often and confidence and trying out new things outside the comfort zone, but then also that if you have the right tribe around you, it just takes one conversation to kind of push you over the edge to either believe that you can or that
you can't like, depending on who you surround yourself with. But that is an example literally on steroids. It's like, I didn't know if I could get back in the water. That would be enormously scary without the same physical strength.
Oh it was. It was scary and it was frustrating. And some days I'd hate it, and you know, and I'd get angry at Cam going because he was always in the water obviously with me, and you know, and I'm like, you don't get this, Cam like it's not the same and no, no, you known't have a wind. But then other days that we just have like such a great time and catch beautiful waves, and so yeah,
it definitely had its ups and down. Yea. Honestly, I would do absolutely anything to be able to grab my board and run down the beach and be on my own, I find because I used to be quite alone. No I did. I used to go mound bike on my running like I liked being on my own, and I'd get surfing on my I mean, obviously I would do stuff with friends.
You had some friends, had a couple.
Of friends, but you know what I mean, I just liked my own company and I missed that after my accident. I missed that so much, just not being able to escape.
Yeah, can you explain adaptive surfing to people who don't actually know we've actually had Did you know Barney Miller? Have you met him?
Barnie? I went in my first competition against Barney. Yeah, so kind I guess Barney also inspired me to compete.
I love Fine He and Kit. We've known them for a while. They were on the show, like in its very first year, and I cry every time I watch that documentary. It's just so amazing.
They're the best couple ever, best best.
But for those who haven't listened to that one, how does adaptive surfing work? And how did you kind of build up your strength?
Again? Okay, so, I mean I'm pretty lucky. I've always been pretty strong in my arms, So so for me now surfing means essentially lying on my board. Obviously I can't stand up, and so I ride a normal shortboard and so but what it is, it does look a little bit weird, I guess, some weird looks. Sometimes I've got two fins on the top of my board, so they keep my legs in place.
Oh yeah, if.
You know what I mean, yeah, Barney had the same So I copied that idea of Barney, because otherwise, like if a wave came, my legs would a leg would just get pushed off and then I'd fall. So I've got two fins on the top and then obviously like the three you know underneath, like a normal good and I've got a handle at the front. Does that make sense? So I grab a handle and then and then hold the side of the board. It must look very strange.
It's almost like boogets. It's like boogie boarding, but on a surfboard.
Yeah. Okay, so someone gets you on the wave. So Mick and Barney are always partners in the competition. So Cam is your.
Yeah, but that's changed now. Yeah, okay. For five years I did have Cam pushing me onto the waves and helping me get back out because I find paddling really hard because well I have no core and so I find it really hard to like arch up and to paddle. I almost paddle with my head on the board.
Yeah, to get more.
It's very strange. Yeah, And so last year I went to Hawaii and there's different classifications. Obviously, you know, some people like Barney, for example, doesn't have great strength in his arms, whereas I mean, and then but I do. And you know, some people are missing limbs, there's visually impaired. There's a lot of different categories. And so I went to Hawaii to compete, and two days before the competition, they're like, oh, we want to reclassify you because you're
looking really strong. Seriously, and so I went in and they're like, yeah, you're not getting any help. Now. I was kind of freaking out, going, oh, how embarrassing if I can't catch a wave. And I was like, okay, I was. I remember, I was so like, oh my god, oh my god, like you know, and the camera. I went out just for a practice when I'm going to camp. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. I do not touch me. I have to do this on my own. And so I caught a couple of ways and say, okay, this
is pretty tricky. And then oh man, even the night before the competition, and I just figured I just kind of changed my mindset. I figured I have nothing to lose. I was actually up against the world champion in my new division. Oh my, oh god. And it was so funny. I remember I went up to this mom. She was an American mom. Her daughter competes in another division. And I said to the mom, I'm like, Sarah's pretty good, isn't she Sarah who was I was competing against. And
she goes, oh, yeah, she's gonna mup the floor. I'm like, okay, thank you for the bruceive confidence.
Oh my god.
So I'll say, okay, cool, I've got nothing to lose. I'm up against the world champ. And I figured, like all I wanted to do since my accident was surf on my own. And I figured, I get to do it at it and this most beautiful surf break, So I just go out there, try my best and have fun. And so I did, and I was super lucky and I got a couple of good waves and I beat it. I beat Sarah.
Yes, oh my god, you want gold two years in a row.
This wasn't It's not well still, you know this is It's called the Adaptive World Tour. So what there is is three different locations for an adaptive surfing. It's a competition away. It was the first the first stop.
Oh my god, yeah, I was.
And so from now on, I mean, yeah, I get no assistance in the water.
That is crazy.
Yeah, it's pretty hard. And last year I went to Worlds and it was in it's in northern California and it's it's in December. It was so cold and so awful, and I remember I did run in my heads. And it's funny because I was against Sarah A. She's American, and she goes to me, you did really well in good surf and really bad in city surf. I'm like, yeah, no, interesting, yeah. And so in the final, it was so windy and so horrible, and I so did not want to go
out and I just bombed. Man. I just I think I kind of caught one wave, but I just literally went over the falls. I was like, this is just shit. So and all I wanted to do. All I wanted was the hood to go off so we could come in. It was such a long twenty minutes. I was like, so I came forth.
That's still amazing.
Oh. I thought I'd be more gutted, but I was just kind of like in a weird way, like and the other girls I was up against. I was up against two Americans and a South African. They were are really like great girls. So we kind of just had fun. So I started cool. I was like, yeah, I didn't mind coming forth. I regatted, but I was okay with it. And yeah, and then this year we just weren't Hawaii about a month ago for the same comp as last year in Hawaiian and yeah, straighted it again. So only
just only just what did you love it? Yeah? I get nervous. I get nervous before competing and I can't eat and I know I have to and oh wow, yeah, I get the full nerves and then it's like, I don't know. I felt good in my final this year in Hawaii, Like my paddle fitness was quite good and I felt strong.
What do you do when you get Like we talk a lot about how self doubt is actually not a bad thing. Like nerves are kind of a sign that I feel like if I turned up to say, a speaking gig and I wasn't nervous, I'd be like, you're not invested enough, Like you're getting a bit complacent. But what do you do with that? Like how do you talk yourself down from like so you don't throw up?
I know I try not to. Well, I can't bear it when people are I kind of like just kind of let me alone. Let me just kind of focus, I do this and take some deep breath and just just yeah, I don't know, just kind.
Of hope for the best, just like get in the zone.
I know. Yeah. I remember my first ever World Championships and we had the three kids over there. This was in San Diego, and they were so excited, which was so cute. But they're like, hey, you, oh my gosh, like this, leave me alone. You know, I'd never completed like before like that, And I was, yeah, no, I just yeah, just try and focus and just do some deep breathing.
And trying it all out.
Yeah, I still get crazy nervous.
I love that though. I think that's so like it's a nice sign that you still really care about the outcome.
And yeah, yeah, when you want to do well, like when everybody wants to win.
Yes. So in between your competing, you do a lot of public speaking. You've had Bradley did a second book on your story, Sam Bloom, Heartache and bird Song, And now, I mean, I can imagine, particularly after the movie, that there are so many people who love your story. I imagine you get inundated with people sharing the ways it's you know, impacted them. And I forget recognized as well, Like, how like your life has changed so much? How is it? Like where are you at now?
No, it's cool. I mean that's the one thing about like the only thing that like I have found positive in this whole crazy journey is sharing my story and just being able to help other people. I can't bear the word like inspirational because I'm not that, but like, you know, I love the fact that I have kind of encouraged other people, like especially to get into the surfing.
You know, it's so funny. There's three new Aussies who are hopefully going to be on the team on the Ustraine team representing Australia this year for the adaptive surfing And yeah, no, it's really cool. Like there was this one guy. Well actually, like last year, I did a talk and then a dad came up to me, and you know, the dad was in tears and he's going
on my sons, he's had a paragliding accident. He's in ron not sure you know, he's paralyzed, and you now, I was just like thinking, oh my god, what like you know, what do I say? And so I said to him, I said, look, just get get Chris as his son to reach out to me when he's ready, and he did and I was so stoked. And then he came up up to my house. He was in hospital and his girlfriend drove him up here, and I know,
we just hit it off. He's just he was incredibly active, like he'd go hiking, you'd do search and rescue, like here's a goer. And he used to surf. And then it was funny. I went up to see him when I was in rehab and I was telling him about the Hawaiian competition and he's like, well, can anyone go? I'm like yeah, and then I over a cup of tea, He's like signing up, going, okay, I'm going to do it.
I was like hell yeah. So it was this awesome. So, I mean, man, Chris hasn't even been injured for a year. It's going to be a year on Sunday and then yeah, so he came to Hawaii. That was his first overseas trip. This one just now yeah a month ago. Yeah, and he competed and you know, he was also up against like obviously the world champion, and he did so well. He came forth out of Saturday or fourteen guys. I was like, dude, come on, and he's like, that's not
going to haugh. I'm like, Chris, that's amazing. But it's just really nice. I remember in messaging me when he's still in rehab, like you know, he wasn't any good space. He was like me, he kind of hated it, like you know, he was angry, and he said, this is
the first time I've been excited since my accident. And then the other day, yeah, we kind of trained together a lot now, and then he said, yeah, the other day, like being in Hawaii with his girlfriend Jazz, who's also just a legend, he said, that was the first time we've been happy, like you know, just that it's okay, that's it sucks. Everything sucks, but you can still have fun.
So that to me makes everything, like, yeah, this makes me feel good, like if you can just help someone, because I know exactly how he feels just being in that in that just horrible dark space.
And I think, I know you don't like the word inspiring, but I think sometimes people in a dark place, any kind of dark place, they need something just to remind them that it is possible, like things can suck in a way that you think is never going to end or that could never change. But people find a new purpose, they can find new joy, and it takes a long time. Like I also think people think you probably healed really quickly, but I'm sure it took you a really long time.
Are you kidding? It took ages. I mean, I mean, I still don't accept it. I'll never be okay with this, Like, man, I hate it so even sometimes I still wake up now and go, oh god, damn much. You know, I just would do anything to be mere, just thine I'm going for a bush work or whatever. Yeah, no, I'll never be okay. But like you said, like if you find a purpose or something that you love doing, it changed.
It does change everything, you know, not like I mean, oh man, the amount of I remember saying to Cam Oh, like quite a long time ago, I remember saying to him, I said, you know what, I've had five epic days in a whole year. You know, I'm like, that's just shit. Yeah, but now obviously you know, like, no, we have like heaps of good days and we're just lucky. We've got to meet amazing people and do really cool things.
Oh that's so lovely? Was that magpiees in the background by the way, just then.
Could you hear it? Yeah, it's a little baby and it comes to be fed. It's not crazy from there. I can't hand fed or like doesn't sit on my lap or anything.
You have a new magpie friend.
Yeah, it's not the same. I don't know if it to we're a girl yet. But yeah, they're always outside. We're so cute. And we didn't really give it a name. Where there's like the two of them, we call that little twins. We go, oh baby.
So my aunties who live around the corner from us, my mum's sister, they have somehow adopted baby magpies as well, similar and they I gave them your book like ages ages ago and they've raised them like with sources of milk and now they like hand feed them every day as well. And they're in Europe at the moment, so they were like, can you please feed our magpies. I'm like, they're not, you're magpies, but they're like they'll wait every day like they expect their food. So you better go
over this. I'm feeding these magpies. Hilarious literally, aw Sam, Well, this has just been so lovely. You are such an absolute legend, and I so appreciate your time. I love quotes and not everyone does. But is there a.
Yeah, aay? Is it a quote from me or a quote that I love anybody?
Or it could even just be like a thought on happiness or joy or just something that you want to leave the listeners with.
Always to say, like, don't put your dreams on hold, which is you don't know what what tomorrow will bring. And that is the one thing I am thankful for up until the accident. Like I said, if I wanted to do something, then I'll do it. Imagine how devastated I'd be if I wanted to get to Africa but I never did, you know, Like look at that. I'm like, so, yeah, don't you change on hold? Just go for it.
Oh that's such a beautiful way to end. I often think that there's always a reason to delay doing what you want to do. There's always something that you could allow to be a reason. But yeah, you don't necessarily always have the time that you think. And I think that's a really really lovely takeaway.
Yeah, so if you want to do it, and do it, so you're going to baton.
We're in that like interesting stage of life right now where we're just starting to think about having a family, and I'm like, I've got a squeeze in so much. Before I went to Antarctica and December, I was like, what else wanted to get out of my system? Fantastic lots of penguins, not magpies, but penguins. Yeah, right, Sam, Where can we find you? Where can we find you book? If anyone is interested in having you speak? Like, where can we find you?
There is a website sand Bloom. Just google sand Bloom.
Amazing. I'll pop it in the show notes. Yeah, thank you so much. This is delight.
This has been so fad. It's so cool. It's so cool talking about the past.
What an incredible human being who still seems quite bewildered that anyone is interested in her story, which is so endearing. I loved speaking to Sam so much, and I hope you guys found her as refreshing and inspiring as I did. If you don't already have a copy of her book, I'll pop links in the show notes along with her social pages, website, the movie and the like. She actually
has a couple of books, as we mentioned. If you enjoyed Please do take a moment to share the episode or leave a review to keep growing our beautiful neighborhood as far and wide as possible. I'll be back next week with Ange to chat about the past few weeks, so if you do have any questions or things you'd like covered, please shoot us a DM before then, and in the meantime, I hope you're all all seizing, you're yahy